A Corrupt Fiction World
by Sunsorrow18
Summary: A random generator was used to choose the two adventurers. Chili and Colress will have a remarkable, horrible experience in the Battle Subway, unraveling the mystery of the dark underground and the men who run it... or perhaps they just weave the enigma tighter. Title under consideration.
1. Chapter 1

They were just standing there, gazing into the dark tunnel as the train sped on. The monochrome conductors were waiting for something, perhaps not even they knew what. And they watched the tracks in silence until the younger brother spoke up.

"Ingo."

"Hmm?"

The silence returned comfortably. Neither minded how quiet and smooth the trains were when they were with the other.

"Hmm."

"Our dream, Emmet?"

"Yes. Is it at hand?"

Ingo remained quiet. He didn't know the answer. Their dream was a foolish one, one that should have been abandoned long ago, but... if it could finally be recognized by this Battle Subway they had built up from the ground and were soon opening, then...

He wasn't sure what would be left to fight for then. And as they thought, the tracks were devoured under the roaring train, and they shot off into the incomprehensible darkness of the tunnels, down to whatever awaited them. Be it failure or success in their goals, the black and white conductors were assured that they would be the ones who won, regardless.

* * *

The youngest of the Striaton triplets crossed his arms tightly, curling his hands in the faint warmth of his sleeves. He was freezing. The underground was just what is sounded like- underground. That meant no sunlight, darkness, the chill of stone tunnels. Not to be mistaken, this Gear Station place was very nice, very clean and all, but Chili didn't like it one bit. It was just too cold. And Cilan had told him to come here and learn about trains or whatever crap, and then he'd ditched. Chili was going to have Simisear singe his hair off for this, seriously-

At least it was said there were burning hot battles here. Specifically after winning twenty battles, after which some weird but supposedly great trainers appeared. He'd heard about these weird sideburn guys from sources other than his train-dork of a brother, so they must have been something special. Even if Chili wasn't here willingly, he wanted to meet these guys.

"Please, stand behind the yellow line as the train approaches."

The tin voice rang out over the station, from loudspeakers overhead. Chili really had to wonder how stupid of people he was going to be here with if they couldn't figure out not to stand by a speeding train.

Bright dots appeared down in the darkness of the tunnel as he stared, growing closer and brighter rapidly. A silver train burst from the mouth of the tunnel, leaving streaks of orange in the Striaton sibling's eyes. It slowed immediately, exponentially, whipping the hair of trainers and people standing at the station. The doors opened wide with a pneumatic hiss, shining with newness and brightness. Chili wasn't usually impressed by vehicles, but this one was okay. He reckoned he could do a lot of damage driving that one into the side of a building.

A man dressed in green was ushering the trainers on. Chili didn't see how they were all going to fit into one car, there were two dozen of them -it was the multi-train, and every one person had a partner- but it seemed the weak ones would be weeded out quickly.

It wasn't long until Chili was at the door, and was paired together with he other man who had approached at the same time as him for a battle partner. Chili was on the multi-line to meet both of the subway men at once, even if he hadn't brought anyone he'd known to battle alongside him. The person he was paired with was very pale, with gold eyes and an inscrutable, catty smile. He looked like a tough battler. Chili was getting pumped up for this every second, like he was going to burst.

"I'm Chili," he announced, holding out his hand spontaneously to shake that of his battle partner. Because that was polite, wasn't it? Cress had been insisting that Chili use his manners lately. Not that the youngest of the triplets was rude, he often just wanted to get to the point and brush off niceties.

"I know," the other man returned coolly, an enigmatic smirk turning up the corners of his lips. Chili was a gym leader, after all, so he was known with some esteem. "I am Doctor Colress. Colress works." There was a slight, but distinct curling in the fingers of his gloved hands, and anyone could tell he was not going to offer either to shake Chili's. "I hope you'll do well in battle, I would so love to beat this train on my first try, understood?"

Chili didn't like this guy. He seemed bossy. But he couldn't ask to be paired with anyone else, because suddenly the man in green gestured them on to the train, and Chili was just too fired up to refuse.

A win in the first battle would assure an advance to the second car, and from then on, they'd go through the train, hopefully building a streak of wins. Each car had a win and a lose. Those who lost would wait in the car they'd been defeated in, and would get off the trains when they made a stopover, or remain there to fight the next challengers. By the first stop, there would be one pair who advanced on to the second train, where the last batch of losers, not good enough to get past fourteen, was waiting. There were not twenty battles before reaching the elusive men renowned as "The subway Masters." There were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of battles, and every pair on the multi-train was fighting to be the two that made it past that last battle.

The Battle Subway was not a place, necessarily, for happiness, though many of those who move on are the sort who find joy in battle and the stress. The Battle Subway was a place where trainers had to force back their feelings so as not to be fooled. The pair of unusual twins watched over the entire station as they waited for someone to emerge from the throngs of losers and perhaps, maybe, give them a battle worth the wait.


	2. Chapter 2

What neither had expected was to loose so late in the game. Maybe before they had gotten used to the Subway rules or the other's battling style, Chili and Colress might have expected to loose, but not later, not once they'd figured each other out (as veteran battlers can do), developed a strategy to work together. But, it happened.

In the eighteenth car, they suffered a crushing defeat. Things had been going well. Chili and Colress had expected that from here on, they were so experienced at the battles, had so many wins, that loosing would be improbable... after all, they were facing people who had lost once. To be honest, though, they'd only hung on so long in that battle because of Colress's steel types having useful resistances to two of the enemy Pokemon. Metagross had been the only one left standing against a Medicham, and it had looked like an even fight.

Chili should have recognized when the Medicham began powering up a Fire Punch, should have been able to warn Colress and perhaps give Metagross enough time to dodge, but he was still crumpled from seeing Darmanitan go down. When the psychic/fighting type brought a flame-engulfed fist against Metagross, it was over for the already weakened Pokemon.

Chili had always been confident in his abilities as a trainer... besides when his brothers challenged him, of course, but these... these two he'd just lost to were normal people. The loss rattled him, and Colress too, even if it didn't show so much on the young scientist's face.

The third of the Striaton brothers was distraught. This wasn't fair, this wasn't right, they were supposed to have won! He allowed Colress, who had a blank sort of look in his eyes, to lead him over to the seats on the edge of the car. The victors in the battle looked confused for a moment about where they were supposed to go -clearly, they had not expected the challengers to loose either, and were lost in the relatively new and not-well tested system in the Battle Subway- but when they consulted the computer, it was clear that Chili and Colress were meant to get off at the next stopover.

It took a few minutes for other battles to finish up. The train slowed just as suddenly as it had pulling up to the station where they had boarded. Chili had at least had some premonition about what was going to happen, and had grabbed on to one of the rings hanging from the ceiling (they sure looked like handholds to him, though he wasn't sure). Colress crashed spectacularly into the cold steel ground, which was also flecked with leftover bits of Pokemon moves and a little gross. His nose burst open with a vibrant spurt of red. It was the brightest color Chili had seen on him, and he just stared for a while. The fire-type specialist was still a bit shocked about loosing, and not quick to respond.

It was a somewhat masculine woman in green who flung open the door to the train and ended up helping Colress to his feet. A gesture of her hand implied that Chili and Colress were to disembark the train. Chili's red eyes flicked to the other man, seeing briefly if he was okay, before he stepped into the dank coolness of the station.

The losers were milling around the dark platform aimlessly, some watching those who were moving on through the windows, others purchasing sodas and lemonades from the vending machines. None seemed to know where to go next, and Chili and Colress were no different in that respect. Colress gravitated to the depot agents, who were holding lanterns in their hands. Their light seemed like an obvious place to gather. Truthfully, he found this platform intimidating... In fact, the whole underground. It felt off to him. Colress liked being in the air, despite his affinity for technology, he liked to be where he could see the outside world.

One of the depot agents, a young male with a fluffy head of silver hair, raised both his hands in the air with crossed fingers, childishly round eyes scanning over the others in green. It must have been some sign to communicate, because the ring of hatted heads dipped in nods, and the agents began gathering the loosing challengers together. Colress stuck close to the woman who had helped him up in the train, hand clamped firmly over his nose. He'd lost sight of Chili in the crowd, despite his bright red hair, but Colress wouldn't really shed a tear for that. It was just too bad, but nothing big, thought trainers did have a tendency to like each other after multi-battling together.

A shrill whistle sounded right in the scientist's ear as he thought about his battling companion, and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

It was the agent he was following, facing the crowd and staring out over them. "Everyone who wishes to return to Gear Station!" she said in a loud, commanding voice. "Please follow us."

She and the silver-haired depot agent who had signaled ready led the way, lanterns held out like stars in front of them as they made their way into the darkness. The Subway was a labyrinth of connecting tunnels as well as the ones the trains actually ran on, and that was without even mentioning the tangle of dead ends and false leads that concealed the private offices of the Subway's Masters. Without the agents, who had either memorized the place or had maps printed on the backs of their gloves, the challengers probably would have gotten lost... In the years to come, few had doubts that some would wander off and starve somewhere in the maze.

The station itself, from which the lines sprung off, was filled with people, even more than had been at the platform. They were muttering, whispering to each other, eyes darting.

Chili had a bad feeling about that. Something was wrong.

At the base of the long flight of stairs separating the real from the addicting Subway, two more men in green were standing. They were letting ever more people flow into the crowded station, but they were only letting those with the rusty tickets from the Anville line out.

Bad rumors flew around. Chili heard someone shout that there had been a murder, and they were probably all being kept as suspects. A young girl who claimed to have seen the ghostly figure of a very tall man in white out her window whimpered that there were vampires here, and bemoaned that they were all going to die. None of it sounded good.

"What's going on?" Colress hissed into the the masculine agent's ear, brows knitted. "Why can't we leave?"

The depot agent -identified by her name inscribed badge as Elyssia- almost cringed. There was a sort of confusion hidden in her eyes, but she kept a very professional manner as she replied. "I do not know, sir. Please remain calm. If there is an emergency or something wrong, the Masters of the Subway will be here shortly to deal with it."

Colress gave her a piercing stare, forehead creased in disbelief. "If? And tell me, please, what the alternatives in this situation to an emergency are."

She did not tell, only gaped slightly, wordlessly, shaking her head.

* * *

"Emmet. Is it time now?" Ingo asked, silvery-grey gaze sliding over to observe his twin. Emmet's smile was pasted in place as he stared down the tunnel. Only the clicking sounds of their heels on the stones could be heard between their words, but as they drew closer to their destination, the general buzz of human confusion grew in volume.

The grand opening of the Battle Subway had, indeed, been grand. Many had shown up to challenge the rumored sacrosanct but virtually unknown Subway Masters. The upper and lower lines had run in perfect unity that day, causing chaos for the incapable challengers. And then there were those who had actually almost managed, gathered in the station.

Emmet shook back his sleeve to check the watch on his wrist. "I think so," he snickered. "All the losers will have left by now. Now maybe we can find a serious battle!"

Ingo inclined his head. Good. In that case, they can commence.

* * *

The lights went black.

A child wailed suddenly in fright. Gear station was filled with whispering.

_"What happened?"_

_"The lights-"_

The circular station is filled with rustling as people shift and reaffirm their holds on their possessions. Someone screamed loudly. There is a mighty crash, a crackle of electricity, and suddenly the blackout was over, just as abruptly as it began.

The faint glow of backup lights, running on emergency generators, spread over the station.

Something had changed, though. The two depot agents were not guarding the entrance- rather, it was now blocked off by a large pile of stones, which seemed to have fallen from above the stairs that had been there. The agents were nowhere to be seen for most of the crowd: unfortunately, those who were close to the entrance could see a bent limb under the stones, and a lot of blood. The other one who had escaped the fall had met fate somehow else, sprawled in the middle of a very concerned and scared group of challengers.

Colress took action. He pushed through those who were frozen in fear. The scientist missed quiet murmurs and whispers that he might have heard had he stayed still- _"I swear I felt someone run by..."_

The second depot agent was already dead when Colress reached him, eyes glazed and staring, neck skewed unnaturally. The pale blond man knelt at his side. It was broken, and not by the rocks, he knew enough about humans to determine that. But panicking anyone in this situation would be useless, and more than that, bad. Fear spread faster than fire, and if everyone in such a crowded place got frightened, Colress couldn't imagine good results.

A strange, but not necessarily bad smell hung around the man's body, a sweet smell like candy or fruit.

"Oh my God," Chili gasped, clutching his chest, feeling his heartbeat racing under his palm. "Oh my God. This is bad."

They were trapped here -he was going to kill Cilan- how were they supposed to get out? Chili forced himself to breathe, allowing logic to make itself heard. Surely some kind of emergency workers would be here soon to clear the stones away, and then everyone would be okay, right? Not his pride after loosing, and not Cilan after Chili was through with him, but no one was going to be seriously hurt. The fire-type triplet kept reassuring himself of that.

Then, over the entire station through loudspeakers, the Subway's Masters spoke.


	3. Chapter 3

The black and white phantoms of the Subway, who oversaw the dark underground and all within, spoke over the entire station full of milling, crying people. Their voices were distorted through the tinny scream of the loudspeaker system, and none of the challengers really seemed to know who was speaking, or where from.

**"Only the most sincere apologies for not being able to welcome you earlier." **The voice that spoke first was dark, almost rich despite the quality given by the speakers. Even the depot agents who weren't too panicked to listen couldn't tell if it was Ingo or Emmet. After all, the two had almost identical voices besides Emmet's off and on tic of stretching some letters.

**"We realize that something tragic has happened, and we ask that you not panic or otherwise display overwhelming emotions. As the Masters of this subway, we can assure you that you will be perfectly safe here. Think of the Subway as a refuge while the authorities work to get you out." **

Someone on the other end of the speakers almost giggled as the silent trainers in the station stared up, as if hoping to catch a glimpse of the Subway Masters on the ceiling.

**"Yes. Think of this as a temporary paradise, sheltering you. May I suggest riding the trains and partaking in more battles to pass the time?"**

And that was it. The silence after the speakers crackled and clicked was overpowering, perfectly complete. After a moment of waiting to see if anything more was said, the depot agents began shuffling around, trying to dodge questions and organize people. Tongue flicking over his lips -his mouth felt so dry- Chili glanced around the station. Some of the younger challengers were crying, adults were whispering to each other or just standing there.

Gently elbowing through the crowd, the fire-type specialist made his way over to the only familiar person there, the one he had battled with during his multi-line challenge. Colress was standing by someone in green clothes sprawled on the floor.

Chili choked back a cry as he registered what the person was. Dead. A look of horror flared in his eyes, and he stepped back quickly.

"No, Chili, don't be scared," Colress said quickly, raising a hand. It seemed perhaps he would take some solace in having someone he knew at least a little nearby. "This man is dead, he's not going to hurt you. I need you to verify something for me."

An ugly grimace spread on his face, Chili unwillingly stepped closer. He covered the lower half of his face with one hand, again recoiling. A heavy smell hung around the dead man, suffocating, like a woman's perfume. It smelled like rotten fruit to him. Or perhaps the slightly egotistical young man was making up an excuse for his sudden urge to throw up, he did _not_ have a weak stomach. But the angle that the man's neck turned at and the glassiness of his stare was so _disturbing_.

Colress returned to the man's side from pulling Chili closer to crouch down and point. "Is it just me, or are there red marks around his neck that look like fingers?"

"Holy shit," Chili gasped out, beginning to hyperventilate. "Holy- yeah they do! Like he was strangled! There was a murder! Holy- the murderer would still be trapped in here with us!"

"Calm down," Colress urged. "And don't speak so loudly. I do not want anyone to panic, least of all you. You are a gym leader. Compose yourself." The Subway Masters -or whoever had really been speaking- were right. This was no time for powerful emotions. Now was the time to think and act logically. "Whoever did this will be found out eventually, and everything will be fine. I simply needed you to confirm that this resembles murder."

"Like Hell it does!"

Chili was just... shocked. Who was this guy, to be so frickin' calm about a murder?! That wasn't how things worked! People were supposed to be scared when someone was killed!

Colress fixed a very serious look on Chili suddenly. "Do you think anyone else has noticed that all contact-"

He was interrupted before he could spill his entire musing to Chili by the approach of the silver-haired depot agent from the multi-line platform. He looked hesitant, round blue eyes continuously flicking down to the body on the floor. "S-sorry, could you step back? It's our duty to take care of this."

Chili eyed the agent's badge. "Vanad. This guy-"

"I'm sorry, Chili, Sir, but if you're looking for answers, I cannot help you. Please, just allow me to take care of this. I suggest riding the super trains to take your minds off it." Vanad wasn't meeting their eyes, instead staring straight down at the floor.

Chili glanced over at Colress with disbelief and opened his mouth to give the scientist something to lipread, but was stopped by a shrug. Colress had no idea why the depot agents were so calm about this, and not attempting to move any of the boulders. He didn't know where they were going to put the body, and he didn't want to either. Colress simply grabbed one of Chili's sleeves and pulled him away, the fire leader following with his head down obediently.

"I swear I'm not going to be comfortable until I'm back in Striaton," Chili began the moment Colress topped tugging. "This just... freaks me out. How are you so calm, man?"

"Quiet," Colress commanded, and Chili closed his mouth. Cress and Cilan had evidently taught him to mind himself around his elders. "Calm down, and tell me. When you were waiting to board the multi-train, did you, or did you not see a PC on the platform?"

Arched red eyebrows shot up, and Chili nodded vigorously. "Yeah, I did. You think we can message someone?"

"I hope."

Having said that, Colress stared to the side, down one of the arches leading to the boarding platforms. His expression was blank, thoughts too deep at the movement be expressed in his face. And very suddenly the pale young man whacked Chili in the chest with the back of his hand.

"You! Summon up your courage and come with me, only if you're willing to possibly confirm a catastrophe. Otherwise leave me and do as you wish."

Colress whirled to stride off, his white clothes making him a ghost in the blurring crowd. He wasn't going to wait up. Colress had things on his mind... terrible things. If he was right, there was something very big and very bad at play here. He wasn't eager to figure it out and have to face the reality that would be his situation afterwards, but certainly no one else here was smart enough to do it instead.

Chili was confused, and scared. All he wanted to do was just run back to Striaton city and burn things, like his brothers' food. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. He was left with a choice. Stay here among strangers, or go after Colress and possibly learn something terrifying. It wasn't rocket science. Colress didn't get out of his sight for more than a minute before Chili caught up with him, panting, on the platform for the double trains (the ones they'd conveniently been nearest to).

"Working hours... Anville... Wi-Fi..." Colress was mumbling and cursing to himself as her punched numbers into the big white PC standing near the exchange corner. The box system was fine, he could check his bank account if the urge found him, so things looked fine.

He'd barely pressed the button for his mailbox before the screen of the PC powered down, going black with the soothing logo of the Battle Subway glowing green.

_"I'm sorry sir," _the PC's automated voice said thinly. _"Your connection has been interrupted. There is most likely a disturbance in your training environment."_

"Dammit," Colress hissed, pounding one fist into the keyboard. "God dammit... Chili."

He raised his eyes seriously, regarding the youngest of the triplet's over the top of his glasses' lens. "It's not just me who thinks this is suspicious, is it? As a gym leader, you have to be able to see this too. No messages, the Anville line will be closed until at least Saturday by now, and I'd bet money that something has mysteriously gone wrong with the Wi-Fi trains too. Do you see how perfectly these things are lining up to be terrible?"

Chili didn't get it at first. "I don't understand. What do those have to do with each other?" But when it hit him, it was like a sledgehammer to the side of the head. Perhaps he still didn't comprehend the entire scale that Colress was foreseeing here, but it still made a flare of apprehension well in his chest.

"With the blocked entrance..." he murmured slowly. "That means that we can't communicate with anyone outside."

"Yes. And everything else works," Colress went on with a nod. "It can only lead me to believe, what with the blackout and the dead depot agent, that not all of this is accidental."

"This? You mean... being in the Subway?" One plus one was falling below two for Chili. He had an aversion to thinking in circumstances where it wasn't common for thought to be necessary- only on education stuff and the like. That was going to be unfortunate for him.

"Exactly. I don't know why it would be, but I feel like someone is seriously trying to keep us here." He cast a quick glance to make sure other challengers and depot agents were staying far away enough from them to not overhear. "Realize, two people are already dead. If, for whatever reason, we and all these people are being trapped here for an indefinite time, I don't think whoever is doing it has any qualms about going to extremes."

Chili let out a deep breath that he'd been holding, leaning against the PC. He stared at the ground for a good minute before coming up with a solution, nodding to himself. "We'll have to get to the Subway Masters. I mean, they watch everything, don't they?" If they actually existed, of course, Chili had no proof the voices on the speakers were real people. Still, it was a better bet than trying to talk to the depot agents, they were clueless. "I'd think they'd know if someone committed a murder in their station, and then we can track the guy down and make them put everything normal!"

Colress opened his mouth to voice another dark thought, but thought better of it and inclined his head to agree with Chili. "You must be right." If not, then things were going to go bad, quickly, and Colress wouldn't wish what he was predicting even on people he hated.

With a sudden spring of movement, Colress took off, darting between people and making his way up to one of the people in green.

"Excuse me, sir, but could you tell me where to find the Subway's Masters?" he asked, slightly out of breath.

The answer was not precisely what he'd expected, but it wasn't too far from his prediction either.

The depot agent only gave him a slight, almost confused little smile before replying. "They're at the ends of the trains, of course. 21 or 49, depending on how you choose." He said no more, turning to help a Preschooler zip up her backpack.

"Chili?" the scientist asked as he whirled on his heel.

"Got it. I'll take Doubles if you go Singles," the fire-type trainer said with an intense gaze. He'd done multi-battles plenty, with his brothers and here in the Subway with Colress. Doubles, he assumed, were even easier, because the trainer commanded both Pokemon, knew what each was going to do.

A small smile quirked on Colress's lips. "Very well. And if luck gives, I'll see you later."

The pale man disappeared back in to Gear Station.

Chili turned and strode up to the depot agent who had been so helpful to Colress. He took a breath, let it out, and said, "Yes, I would like to board."


	4. Chapter 4

The Double-line rain along at a steady pace. Battles blazed, crashed, and smoldered out, people streaming between the cars perfectly with their wins and losses. Chili was no exception. He accumulated a very lucky streak of wins. Seven. Fourteen. He found that, despite, the circumstances, he was enjoying himself. This was the way to battle! Nonstop, burning through opponent after opponent. Commanding his partners with wide gestures, Chili wanted to keep going until he lost or met the Master of the Double Lines. He watched with a grin as Darmantian powered through the enemies.

The system that the Subway operated on, however, didn't allow for that. Every seven wins meant a pause.

Chili was still looking for anything strange. Something on the platform after his fourteenth win caught his attention. Of course, it wasn't odd for a Gym Leader to visit a battle facility, perhaps to sharpen their skills or just to observe other trainers -Chili was here, wasn't he? But thoughts of a dark, damp underground didn't usually make people think of the Gym Leader Burgh.

Five years past, Burgh had obtained the title of the youngest Gym Leader to ever be appointed in Unova - a fairly new region itself- at the age of fourteen. Chili was still sore, even though he barely knew Burgh personally, that he and his brothers had missed at least tying that by just one year. The triplets, sadly, had only been appointed seven months ago, and missed out on the title.

Perhaps this petty jealously was what had made Chili notice. But once he had, he just had to think about how strange that was. Burgh was known to be a very sickly young man, always in bad health, and it was hard for Chili to imagine that being in such a cold, stale place was much help to his condition. Yet there he was, shivering on the platform and wrapped in some kind of shawl.

Chili made his way over immediately. The bug-type Leader raised his head, hearing the noisy approach. He was pale, with a certain cast of emaciation to his face. Burgh was famous in the art world for the lively vibrancy in even his simplest pencil sketches, but he looked like a skeleton.

"Burgh," Chili greeted him, trying to sound pleasant. "It's a surprise to see you here. You look... uh, better than you did at the last League meeting." A blatant lie. Burgh had looked a disaster back then too, and every month before it that the Striaton brothers had had the privilege of attending those meetings.

The auburn-haired man looked down with a very faint laugh. "Ha. Thanks, but you don't have to flatter me, Chili. I have an idea what you're probably thinking." Burgh sighed softly and rubbed his arms, approaching the thick bright line that separated the safe area of the platform from the tunnel and glancing down into the dark yawning mouth.

"Do you think the train will arrive soon?" he asked, turning back to face Chili with a beautiful smile.

"Surely. But you haven't told me why you're here," Chili said quickly, raising one hand as if to motion something. "I mean... I thought you needed fresh air and sunlight and all."

Burgh gave him a sly wink and pointed a finger at the side of his head. "That's for my health, and that can hang on for a while. But my muse was starving! Where better to replenish it than here?! Tell me something better than a mysterious Subway with a pair of perfectly synchronized twins at the ends? How... How divine and intriguing, only allowing man to look upon their faces after a difficult challenge!"

Burgh had a sort of sparkle in his fresh, verdant eyes despite the gauntness of his face. He was so passionate about his art. Chili almost got the feeling that Burgh would paint himself to death if he could.

"I guess," Chili gave in. "But..."

He stepped right up to speak to Burgh, just to make sure no one else could hear. "You do realize what's happening here, right?" Sincerity spread over the younger man's face, and he looked up at Burgh as if trying to reassure himself that he and Colress weren't the only ones with this burdensome knowledge. "I don't know if you were in Gear Station when it happened, but the entrance to the Subway collapsed. A depot agent was murdered. The Wi-Fi isn't connecting to anything outside the Subway."

There was a very long, dark pause. And then Burgh smiled. It was a bitter, sorry sort of smile. "I know. I figured it out pretty quickly. But you have to make the best of even the bad situations! Otherwise, things will never get better. Take it from me."

"Er." What was Chili supposed to say to that? As part of the Pokemon League, he was one of the few people who knew that Burgh had recently "recovered" from crippling depression, and he knew also about the man's two attempted -and, needless to say, failed- suicides. Chili really didn't want to say anything insensitive.

"Oops. Sorry! That was a silly thing for me to say," Burgh apologized with a little grin. "Don't mind yourself with me. Just... be careful, you know? You've already figured out that there's something screwy here, so be sharp, keep yourself safe." He flicked Chili on the forehead, in the nicest way possible. "See you at the next platform, I'm sure."

With a heavy rumbling and rattling sound, the train pulled up to the platform, and the doors opened to envelope a wave of eager challengers, and the less enthusiastic ones as well. Some were spat back out as losers, destined to be lead back to the station. Burgh had slipped into the line behind Chili and gave him an encouraging smile as he stepped into the train car.

* * *

Colress tended to enjoy the simple, straightforward mechanics of single battles. Afflict status ailments, attack, destroy, and win. Even the factor of a trainer's bond with his or her Pokemon could be overcome by force and basic strategy.

The Battle Subway was a rather different matter. Preoccupied, Colress continued to be booted from the train after only a few matches. It didn't bother him. He had had a bad feeling about the trains anyways.

Really, it was the entire station that was giving him goosebumps and an impending sense of dread, but leaving the station was impossible. The next best option was to move away from the estimated 10,000 ton trains (Colress wasn't a train expert, but they were definitely incredibly heavy). Surely there had to be a way to get to the Subway Masters without going through the battles. After all, it was an emergency. Colress wasn't all caught up with laws either, but there was probably some legal obligation that they had to do whatever was in their power to fix this.

The depot agents had so far proven themselves to be about as helpful as oven mitts with giant holes in them, but it couldn't hurt to check quickly before going off and maybe getting lost somewhere.

He managed to locate one in the middle of a crowd on the platform, hastily fending off questions and accusations. Colress only had to wait a minute before the angry challengers dispersed, some going back into the station, some boarding the Single train.

The depot agent removed his hat to wipe the back of one hand across his sweat-damp brow. He froze suddenly as Colress approached, lavender eyes opening wide to stare at the pale scientist unmovingly.

"Excuse me, sir," Colress said. "Could you help me with something quickly?"

"Uh... sure," the agent said. He spun on his heel, looking around quickly, then pointed a gloved finger. "Bathroom is that way," he announced with a big grin.

"I am looking for something," Colress said, raising a hand. "But not a restroom. I'm searching for a way to contact the Subway Masters without taking the challenge on the trains. Surely there must be a way? It is an emergency, after all."

The depot agent looks a little surprised, as if he couldn't understand why anyone would want to find the Subway Masters. "Man, they seriously don't care about anything other than their challengers." He chewed on his lip for a minute, thoughtful. "There is... Probably shouldn't say, but they do patrol the tunnels too. 'S probably the best bet if you can't do the trains. Though... They might not be eager to listen to someone who cheated."

What an awful thing to have to do. The tunnels weren't exactly calming to Colress, and were in fact a little frightening. But it was better than doing nothing. Passively accepting a fate of waiting for someone to come rescue everyone was not an option.

Reassessing his Pokeballs and items, Colress took a deep breath. He turned and started walking down the station, using the yellow line for guidance.

It got dark quickly once he entered the tunnel.


End file.
